Dear Families,

Hello and Happy First Friday of the new school year!!!  It’s been so nice to be back together again!  We are also happy to welcome 2 new classmates: Kaiden and Janson!!

This week has flown by (as the first week usually does….), but we’ve had many great moments together.  Some things we’ve done this week:

• Band orientation - Sign-up came home today!! and is due back TUESDAY!!
• Reviewed and practiced classroom routines and procedures
• Enjoyed some creative team time with Vasanthi’s class
• Explored the changes in the classroom library
• Got BRAND NEW reader’s notebooks and recorded our thoughts about how to make reading the best it can be this year
• Reviewed some of the Math Habits of Mind and Habits of Interaction through our math activities and discussions
• Enjoyed a few read-alouds (Did you hear about Swimmy?!)
• Talked about what we can do to ensure our classmates are feeling safe and happy in our classroom - eye contact, good listening, kind responses, body language, etc.

Of course, our days were also busy with UA, recess and lunch, getting used to the new schedule, catching up about our summers, enjoying our first “Snack Shack”, and so on.  

Students have not yet received any HW assignments, nor have they gotten their reading logs.  I still hope that students are reading regularly at home.  Reading logs will come home next week as will our first goal sheet.

I’ve just been informed that all students were reset on Fasttmath, back to multiplication.  We’ll do additional fact assessments before we decide where students really need the work.  I can switch students to other operations, but all students will have to reassess into the program.  I know that this might feel discouraging your children, but if they were working really hard and really know their facts up to a certain point, that will show when they take the initial assessment and they’ll be placed appropriately.  I won’t start them back into Fasttmath until after we do the classroom assessments (probably by the end of next week).  

Additionally, I’d like to briefly mention the Hike for Hunger. The Endeavor team has signed up to participate in the Hike for Hunger this year to benefit Hunger Free VT.  It will take place on Saturday, September 28 between 9:30-12:00.  Participation is optional.  More details will come home shortly.  In the meanwhile, here’s a link: http://www.razoo.com/story/Cara-Crowther-Fundraising-For-Hike-For-Hunger-2013

I hope you’ve heard from your children about the first few days of school.  Its really good to be together again!!

As always, keep in touch!!